The NCAA’s protracted investigation of Mississippi has taken a new twist within the last month – investigators have interviewed players at two or more rival Southeastern Conference schools about their recruitment by the Rebels, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports.

NCAA Enforcement representatives have visited Auburn and Mississippi State, and perhaps at least one more SEC Western Division school, this summer to speak with players who were recruited by Ole Miss. The players were granted immunity from potential NCAA sanctions in exchange for truthful accounts of their recruitment, sources said.

Those interviews indicate that the NCAA investigation has expanded beyond the spring focus on former All-American offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil.

Generally speaking, you don’t want to see the word “immunity” in a context like that.

Expanding investigations is what the NCAA likes to do. I’m starting to think this won’t end well for ol’ Hugh.

63 responses to “The NCAA, on the scent”

There’s no way this ends well in Oxford. Offers of immunity aren’t given for fact finding interviews, and I guarantee Mullen wants the NCAA to drop the hammer on Ole Mi$$. I wonder if the NCAA informally contacted CMR about what happened with the recruitment of Tunsil given it was assumed that he was coming to Georgia up to about 2 days before signing day.

AU may want to be careful about opening up the can of snitch. This could be like one of those games where everyone anticipates the other guy is going to launch his missiles first, so they launch, and soon the whole board is one imaginary smoking ember. Gus and his folks may figure they’re about a month from getting the heave ho (a 1-3 start could do it, right?), though, so why not light the fire and then enjoy the chaos from the safety of their fully paid buyouts?

It depends on whether his buyout can be clawed back for violations of which he was aware. If it can, I imagine Gus would not want to fire the first salvo. I think MSU would make me very nervous if I’m Freeze. There’s enough hate between those programs that little brother from Starkville would love to bloody big brother’s nose.

And for their cheating they were rewarded with a couple of 9-3 seasons, a Sugar Bowl berth when it wasn’t such a big deal to get one anymore, and no division or conference championships. I don’t see the massive benefit in this case.

That’s exactly what I thought, you and audit are all bulldog mouth with a mockingbird ass! When you say UGA swims in the same waters as other cheating schools, please state your case…..or shut the f+%# up!

Unless I’m wildly misremembering things, AJ Green and Gurley were already players at UGA, not recruits. And I know I can’t think of any examples like Tunsil where a 5-star prospect signed without even a real official visit.

I don’t know if blatant is the word I’d use to describe it. I’d say they’re not being smart about it. Although Hugh Freeze has always been an ambitious guy.

The whole recruiting process had been interesting to Michael, in its way. It told him a lot about the people who had taken an interest in his future. His high school coach had used him to get himself a college football coaching job, and by the end he had taken to calling Hugh Freeze “The Snake.” After Hugh laughed about it—this was the way their world worked—the nickname stuck.

It will be the easiest treasure hunt the NCAA has had, it was all too obvious and amateurish to have disguised much. The problem is, even with the evidence in plain sight, it will still take the NCAA 5+ years to complete it’s recommendation and finally issue sanctions that will hurt players/coaches who will be long gone. And yes, the other schools in the West will throw everything they have at them to make the Rebels go back to their traditional place near the bottom of the conference. And while PTC and Audit are technically correct about all schools having some things that are not totally clean, there is fudging/coloring outside the lines, and there is grand theft with injuries….that is the difference. Auburn, nd TN have been the worst offenders, but Ole Miss went all in without even understanding there should be some camouflage involved. No, it won’t end well. The pre, and post, game hours in The Grove will again be the best experience of all Saturday’s in Oxford.

Unless the NCAA has hired new investigators within the past few years there is a really good chance that Freeze gets off scott free, just like Manziel, Winston, Newton, and Miami who, if they got punished at all didn’t receive much more than a slap on the wrist.

The NCAA’s only real ace in the hole would be an AD like McGarity who will basically do all their work for them by investigating and preemptively suspending his own staff and athletes.

They have already self imposed and that was not including the spectacle that was draft night. Hugh Freeze really showed the height of arrogance when he posted that tweet about allegations and reporting it to the compliance staff. After that you knew the shit was gonna get real. Dumb ass. Did he not learn anything from Auburn? If your gonna be blatant about it you better get you a natty (Cam).

Uga, anticipating this investigation, has suspended Chubb for 6 games for taking a second plate of pork chops from the dining hall. Eason has been removed from the team for improper contact with a Georgia girl during recruitment. More to come.

Ole Miss put gasoline on their fire with their year of “doesn’t involve this coaching staff ” leaks. In retrospect, it just served to convince the NCAA (and later the media) that they were dealing with a group of people who can’t think beyond the next lie. It’s like that entire crew over there is stuck in middle school.

Quote Of The Day

“But outside of that, the biggest advantage you can have is have good leadership, have a veteran football team, and when you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter whether you have spring practice or not. When you don’t have that, it’s tougher, when you don’t have leadership and you don’t have the experience at certain positions.”— Kirby Smart, Dawgs247, 3/31/20